Largest insect in the world

The largest insects in the world are locusts There are many species and subspecies of locusts. Long-horned grasshoppers (a suborder of locusts) are considered the largest insects and live mainly in the southern hemisphere. The largest insect in the world is probably the weta, which originally lived in New Zealand and some Pacific islands. It is a long-horned grasshopper. The animal (Latin name: Deinacrida heteracantha) can grow up to 17 cm long and weigh 70 grams.

A weta from New Zealand

Unfortunately, the largest insect on earth is extinct on the two main islands of New Zealand. In the wild, wetas only occurs on the approximately 30 km² island “Little Barrier Island” a few kilometers north of New Zealand’s North Island. Other species of weta live on other islands in the Pacific, in South America and Africa. These are also very large, but not quite as large and heavy as the largest insects on earth in New Zealand. The extremely large species in New Zealand is called “Deinacrida heteracantha”.

All other very large insects are grasshoppers. The longest insects are stick insects. They look like tree branches (for camouflage). These animals can even be longer than a weta, but are nowhere near as heavy. Very long stick insects can be found in Indonesia, for example, but also in other tropical rainforests.